A Good Heart

"Milly, we really shouldn't be doing this. You remember what happened last time we tried to help these dogs." Said John looking aorund the brush they were hiding in. "I'm well aware of what happened, seeing as how I'm the one who got hurt!" Milly tapped out on her phone showing it to him. She then pulled her finger to her lips and said, "Shhh!" She kept her eye out and could see the kiddie pool they brought last time. It was full of bugs, leaves, mud, and mold. They had brought the pool to give the dogs at their neighbors house water. They refused to take care of the animals properly since their daughter left for college. Their daughter was the only one who cared for those poor dogs, and now that she was gone Milly had made it her goal too keep the poor things safe. Suddenly a soft, deep whisper sounded behind them. "What are you doing?" a man asked. His hair was long at least to his shoulders, his eyes were a muddy brown color, and he was a very large well built man. His hair was tied up in a bun and he had a tan cowboy hat on. "Who are you?" John asked flustered by this mans sudden arrival. "I think we should wait for introductions, the way you're hiding here in the brush lets me know that this isnt your property either." he said jokingly to them. "We're here to take that pool back clean it, then fill it with fresh water. These are our neighbors and they don't take care of their pets, we're trying to help so don't get in the way!" John said before running quickly and grabbing the pool. He ran back and handed it to Milly who proceeded to dump it out, scowling at the stench that was coming from it. Her long auburn hair was tired back into a braid, and she was wearing a white loose fitting , button up blouse and pale blue ripped jeans. She had on her light brown cowboy boots, and the way her freckles laid across her whole face gave her a younger look. She poured out the gross substance and began walking down the road carrying the pool on her side. As she walked along the road the stranger from before was walking behind her. "So, i'm guessing that you're the ones who gave them that pool in the first place?" he asked casually walking up beside her. She nodded and kept walking toward their farm, "Why is he following ,me?" She thought to herself and kept walking at a slow pace, as the little plastic pool was weighing down her small frame. John walked up beside her snapping her out of her thoughts. "Mills, do you want me to take that?" She shook her head and kept walking.They were almost back to the farm anyways, and she wanted John to be able to spend time with Angie, her best friend has had a crush on her brother for so long. She walked a little faster leaving her brother and the stranger to talk behind her. She hurried once she saw the gate to their farm and hopped it, pulling the pool over with her. She smiled when she saw their new foal running towards her. Her name was Juniper, she was a white and brown spotted pinto horse. Her mother, was Milly's favorite horse, she was the last one that her and John’s parents bought before they passed. During birth, the mother of this foal died, and Milly was devastated. That being said this foal loved Milly like she was her mother, and Milly cared for her, even bottle fed her for the first eight months of her life, she just weaned her a few weeks ago. She began rubbing the foals ear, and kissing it's snout. She hummed the foals favorite tune and picked up the pool. Little did she know that her brother and the stranger were right behind her and heard her beautiful melody. “She doesn't talk anymore, but sometimes she hums to the animals. That foal though, she loves that foal, it’s like her baby! She’s raised it since it was born." John said as they continued to walk towards their farmhouse. It was a beautiful two story home made of white bricks. There was a wrap around porch with a large white porch swing and some rocking chairs. Milly walked to the side of the house grabbing the hose and unravelling it, the foal following right beind her and nudging her every once in a while. She'd laugh and push the foals snout to keep her away from the water hose, but as soon as it turned on, thee foal was leaping wildly around trying to play in the water. Milly's laughter and the foals neighs soon filled the air as Milly began cleaning out the pool. Once the pool was cleaned properly she filled it up with water, and pulled over a small wagon. She laid the pool on it and brought it to the front of the house. The stranger was there on the porch on one of the rocking chairs, Angie, and John were sitting on the porch swing and they seemed to be having a nice conversation. Milly cleared her throat, and soon all eyes were on her. She pointed to the wagon and looked pointedly at John. "Okay, okay, okay, I got it Milly. You gonna stay with Angie and Mr." He stopped looking over to the man on the porch. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even think about it!" he laughed. "My name is Jackson, I'm the new owner of the pet clinic down the road. I was going to go try to help those poor dogs, when I noticed you two hiding in the brush." he said standing to his feet. Milly was pleasantly suprised to hear that he was going to try to help the dogs as well. She looked to her brother and shook her head pointing to the barn. "Okay, I understand, you wanna get your chores done." he said walking off the porch. I'll be right back Jackson, unless you wanna come help me take this back to the dogs." John said. "Yeah, I don't mind, probably be easier with two people anyways." replied Jackson following him off the porch. They began walking back to the house down the road and quickly made their way back. When they got back they found Milly walking out of the barn with the foal still following behind her. She went along doing her chores, and the foal kept chipperly following her the whole time. Angie had gone inside. "Come on in, I think Angie is making some coffee." Said John holding open the door for Jackson. Jackson walked in and stood by the door, John soon walked in and walked up the staircase in front of them into a small kitchen where Angie stood with the coffee pot pouring herself a cup. Startled by them she jumped slightly. "Lord John! You could at least tell someone before coming into their part of the house!" she giggled out taking a sip of her coffee. "Sorrry Ang, I forgot how jumpy you are." he snickered, she slapped his arm and turned around walking over to a small table. She sat down and sipped on her coffee. John looks outside, which drew Jackson's eyes to look where he is looking. He sees Milly cleaning out the horse troughs before fiilling one up with water and another up with horse feed. She then leads the foal to the trough making sure she was eating. The other horses came running from the barn for their food, and Milly went inside and began mucking out the horse stalls. "She sure is a hard worker." Jackson said, bringing John out of his thoughts. "Yeah, she is, always has been." John said pouring a cup of coffee and handing it to Jackson before grabbing another and pouring a cup for himself. "All she does is work, she's been that way since our parents passed. She only does her chores around the farm. Occasionally she'll go to town to get supplies for the farm, or food for the house, but normally this is what she does. She even turned this space into a personal home for Angie when she moved in so that way she could have her own space." He said taking a long sip of coffee. "I don't know how she does it honestly." Angie started. "She's been this way for over 10 years now. She barely goes out unless it's for the farm, or other animals she tries to care for. She doesn’t speak anymore, even to me and John at this point, ever since her parents.” She sighed. Jackson sat there for a moment processing," What happened to your parents? If you don't mind me asking." he said. John was silent for a moment before sighing." They were in an accident about 10 years ago.They were out doing the farmwork with Milly and I when a bad storm came, the tornado siren went off spookng the horses and a few of them ran into the field. They took Milly and I inside and told us to stay in the basement. Milly was only 10 at the time, and I was only 14, we were both terrified. We heard the wind getting louder. Our parents got the horses back into the barn and secured it, but as they were about to get in the house..." he paused. "The truck was picked up by the strong winds, and it slammed down landing on top of them. They were crushed by the truck." he looked out the window to Milly, who was now bringing all of the muck out of the barn and pouring it out of the wheelbarrow. "Milly wont even get into a vehicle now, she was so traumatized. She walks or rides the horses everywhere she needs to go, even takes the wagon to get supplies from town. She changed so much, she used to play with her friends, go to town to watch a movie, or go shopping for new dresses, but now she just works. He looked out to see Milly smiling at the foal who was drenched from shoving its whole head in the trough. Angie walked up beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder gently. "She'll come back to us eventually John, but she had it a lot worse than you did. It was traumatic for the both of you, but more so for Milly, you know that." She said looking at the ground. "What do you mean by that?" Jackson asked. "Well." John began," Milly ran out of the house when we heard the truck crashing. She was worried about our parents, I was frozen with fear. She ran out to the truck and saw our parents laying under it lifeless. She kept trying to move the truck off of them, eventually I snapped out of it, and when I saw what happened I called the police. They showed up after about an hour. They could barely make it onto the property because of the debis the storm blew in. Little Milly refused to stop trying to free them, her hands were so bloody, and there wer deep gashes across her palms. She had been trying to lift the truck for hours, the doctor later told us that our parents died on impact. I thought it was nice that they didn't have to suffer, but Milly's never been the same." he said walking back and grabbing the coffee pot, pouring himself another cup. "Her palms are scarred badly and she has a scar above her right eyebrow where her head hit the truck when she passed out from exhaustion. Just then Milly walked in and headed upstairs to where everyone was standing. She felt awkward that everyone's eyes were on her and quickly ran into her room that was down the hall. She closed the door before taking off her muddy clothes and tossing them in the laundry bin. She quickly took a shower and put on some clean clothes. She tossed on a white flowing dress, it hugged her body in a very light and lovely way. She brushed out her long hair, it was down past her butt at this point and her face had a slight blush across it from being in the sun. She then walked back through the group of people before heading downstairs. They could hear her makig a racket of pots and pans downstairs and soon heard a sizzling sound, and the smell of fried chicken soon flilled the house making everyone hungry. Upstairs John spoke quietly. "See what I mean? She came in, took a shower, and went right back to working. She always keeps herself busy, and never takes time to enjoy herself." "It's alright hon." Angie said tapping his shoulder lightly. "You know how she gets, she wants to make us lunch, she almost always does, you said that her food remind's you of your moms cooking, and ever sense she cooks all the time. We just need to try to talk to her again, and tell her to take some time for herself." she added. He reached up placing his hand on hers," Thank's Ang." he said patting her hand. Jackson stood to his feet clapping his hands together once. "Well, I thank you for your hospitality, but I best be on my way. Remeber that I own the pet clinic down the road, it'll be open starting tomorrow, if y'all need anyting just let me know and I'll be happy to help. You seem like really good people, who help out the community, and espcially the animals in the community, which I am greatful for." He said as John led him back down the stairs. "Thank you for helping us out!" said John reaching the bottom step. Milly could hear them coming down and how Jackson was leaving, but she wanted to thank him for helping them out. She quickly ran out stopping in front of them and spread her arms out to the side. "What is it Mills?" John asked curiously, he hasn't seen his sister act this was in quite some time. Milly pointed to Jackson then to the dining room. The dining room was right off the kitchen, it was all very sleek. They had grey and brown hardwood floors, the cabinets, kitchen table and chairs were white. There were plates and napkins sitting on the table. The napkins had some silverware on them, and there were four cups of iced lemonade sitting at each spot. The countertop was a dark grey marble. He could see all the food that Milly was making, there was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, and cornbread. She looked frantically for her notebook before finding it in a chair at the table, she ran to it and picked it up writing, "Please stay for lucnh, I want to thank you for your help today!" she wrote and showed it to them. John smirked, his sister very rarely invited people to stay for lunch, especially not someone she just met. She ran back over stirring the mashed potatoes and greenbeans before angrily turning back to the group who were still standing and stomping her foot pointing to the kitchen table. John threw his hands up in defeat and walked over to the table sitting down at the far end of the table, right by the bay window, "Y'all best sit down, she has a temper. It's that red hair, of hers!" he said laughing before a wooden spoon flew past his head. Milly stood smirking with her arms crossed, acting like she didn't just launch a wooden spoon at his head. Jackson laughed loudly before taking a seat at the table next to John, Angie sat across from John and they began chatting again. After a few minutes Milly brought the food to the table, laying each bowl and plate in the middle so everyone could get what they wanted. She brought over the pitcher of lemonade and sat it on the table along with the food. She took her place next to Angie and across from Jackson. Soon everyone began getting their food on their plates and digging in. She was happy seeing everyone enjoying her cooking, but that feeling only lasted for a few minutes before they heard a loud bang coming from outside. Milly was the first one to get up, she ran out of the house completely barefoot and into the yard where they heard the sound come from. Then John heard a voice that sent rage through him say," Y'all think you can act all high and mightly, breaking onto our property. Those dogs our ours, and there ain't nothing you can do about it!" he yelled firing a shot into the air with his shotgun. John looked outside and panic ran through him. "I told you one too many times John, if your stupid sister can't stay off my proptery I'd kill her, and here y'all came again!" he yelled. Then John saw her, Milly running barefoot across the lawn, her long auburn hair had fallen out and was laying in waves down her back, she was running straight for him. "Dang it Milly!" He yelled out standing and running out the door, grabbing his gun and making his way towards them. Angie and Jackson following right behind him. When they made it out to the lawn where they were, they saw Milly holding the barrel of the gun trying to wrestle it out of his hands. "Stupid girl let go! You're so annoying and useless, stay off of my property!" he yelled before pulling the gun back quickly and bashing it against Milly's head. She fell still to the ground, blood pouring out of her head. "That's it Lou! I've had enough! You almost killed Milly last time, and you were right, I couldn't do anything then because we were on your property, but like a true i***t, you came onto our property this time and hurt her. You're going to jail Lou!" John yelled pointing his gun at the man who hurt his sister. Jackson and Angie ran to Milly who was lying still on the ground. "Mills?" said Angie turning her over. Blood was pouring out of her head and had covered part of her face, and her hair. "Oh god!" Angie said standing to her feet and fumbling to get her phone. She called 911, they said they'd be there soon. "Jackson, can you take Milly to the hospital, take one of the horses, it's right up the road from here, you'll be a lot faster than an amublance at this point." he said. Jackson quickly jumped up carrying Milly to the barn, he didn't notice before how small she was. Her small frame was roughly half his size, she was thin, and her hair was so long and beautiful. He quickly made it to one of the horses and laid Milly on it carefully before climbing up and adjusting her in his arms. She fit so snugly, he brushed her hair out of her face, and that's when she saw how large the gash on her forehead was. He ripped a piece off of his shirt and balled it up onto her head, tucking her tightly in his arm, then taking off on the horse. Milly began waking up on the way there, she reached up to touch her head which was throbbing at this point. "Don't touch it Milly, don't worry, we're almost to the hospital." a mans voice rang in her ears. She pulled her hand away and saw that it was covered in blood. She started to panic seeing all the blood and was breathing frantically. "Hey, hey Milly, calm down, you're okay I've got you." the voice said again. She looked up still dazed and in a panic, that's when she saw him. His handsome face was riddled with worry, and he was trying to calm her down. "J-Jackson?" she said shakily before losing conciousness again. After about 12 minutes they made it to the hospital. Jackson slid off the horse and pulled Milly into his arms cradling her gently against his chest. "Help! Her crazy neighbor attacked her!" he yelled running into the hospital.